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The number of cases involving turbines collapsing, self immolating or throwing their blades to the four winds (aka “component liberation”) has become so common that, if we were a tad cynical, we would go so far to suggest the possibility of some kind of pattern, along the lines proffered by Mr Bond’s nemesis, Goldfinger: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times it’s enemy action”.
This collection of stories from the US, UK, Germany and Canada suggests either enemy action or a product with a thoroughly hopeless design.
Missaukee County Wind Turbine Destroyed By Fire
9 and 10 News
Megan Atwood
21 December 2106
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Video transcript
“We got on scene to find heavy smoke and fire,” says Jay Deboer, deputy chief for the McBain Fire Department.
Fire way up at the top of a wind turbine.
We caught on camera the third blade slamming to the ground in flames.
Fire crews arrived just after one-thirty on Tuesday, but realized there was little they could do about it.
All three blades came crashing down, which was a frightening experience for people living in the area.
The turbine owned by Heritage Sustainable Energy in the Stoney Corners Wind Farm in McBain, between County Line and Lucas Roads in Missaukee County.
9&10’s Megan Atwood was on scene of the fire and talked with the family who owns the property where the turbine once stood.
“Unfortunately with the hazards because of the heavy machinery that’s up there, there’s not much that we could do until it falls down or wait until the point that it’s safe and we can send somebody up there to make an inspection,” says Jay Deboer, the Deputy Chief for McBain Fire Department.
A wind turbine in flames. Fire crews had to sit back and wait it out.
For nearby homeowners, it was a shocking sight.
“We couldn’t believe it was on fire. We were amazed,” says Larry Pluger.
Larry Pluger says he arrived at home minutes before this turbine caught fire and couldn’t believe his eyes. This is what he was seeing in his backyard.
“We just got home from working and we sat on our chairs and I got a call from my son Kevin and he said did you call 911? And I said why? He said the windmill is on fire,” Pluger goes on to say.
Heritage Sustainable Energy owns the turbine and says this has never happened before in McBain.
“All of these machines are monitored remotely so there was a fault at some point. The fire is out but we’ll continue to monitor just in case of the remainder of the evening and into the night,” says Rick Wilson, Vice President of Operations for Heritage Sustainable Energy.
The company even offering help if anyone nearby needed it.
“They said we could’ve gotten a motel tonight if our house smelled, they would put us up,” continues Larry Pluger.
This wind farm designed to keep people living near it safe, in case something like this ever happens.
“We keep them well away from any houses or residents so there is no danger under any condition. Once in a while we have accidents like this that occur but safety precautions are very well adhered to and we take great care in that,” continues Wilson.
“We thought sometimes some of the ashes might land on our house, but they didn’t. The fire department was all around and it was real windy,” Pluger goes on to say.
The energy company will investigate to figure out what went wrong.
9 and 10 News
Meanwhile in Britain …
Storm Barbara blows blades from wind turbine
Manchester Evening News
Catherine Smyth
24 December 2016
High winds and heavy rain caused disruption to roads and buildings on Friday afternoon as Storm Barbara hit the region.
A dog walker watched in horror as Storm Barbara blew the blades from a wind turbine – and they headed towards him.
Grandfather Ray Gansler was walking on the hills near Bacup, Rossendale, with his Staffordshire Bull Terrier Lucy at around 2.30pm on Friday.
High winds and heavy rain caused disruption to roads and buildings around the region on Friday afternoon.
Ray, 50, said: “I heard a noise that sounded like the squeak of a van and then I saw the blades of the turbine had come off and were coming towards me very quickly.
“I just hit the ground and covered Lucy. To me it seemed like it was coming close to me and then the wind caught it and smashed it into a field.”
One of the four 34.2m high wind turbines on land at Scar End Farm is now missing its three blades and central hub; they landed in a nearby field full of saplings.
Mr Gansler, of Weir near Bacup, said: “As the blades dug into the ground it didn’t half make a loud noise. It frightened my dog and it frightened me. It made such a loud bang and I didn’t know if the blades were going to come off.”
He raised the alarm with the owner of the land where the turbines are based and also contacted the police.
Mr Gansler said: “The turbine nearest the farm had switched off, but the other two were still spinning around at a rapid speed.
“I was worried that if another one broke off and landed on the other side of the hill there are houses nearby.
“When you see something like that coming towards you, you really think it is going to hit you.”
TGC Renewables applied for the wind farm at Scar End in 2012 and was initially rejected permission by Rossendale Borough Council following public objection.
That decision was overturned later that year on appeal by the planning inspector.
Manchester Evening News
Meanwhile in Germany …
Collapse of wind turbine under investigation
Power Engineering
Diarmaid Williams
5 January 2017
The collapse of a 95 metre high wind turbine in Saxony, eastern Germany, on Thursday is under investigation.
The Saxony online daily Sächsische Zeitung (SZ) here reported the incident at the wind farm near Leisnig. So far the investigation has found that one of three blades failed catastrophically, thus creating a huge imbalance that caused the tower to buckle 15 meters above the ground and led to the structure crashing down.
According to the report, “Through the force of the impact, the gearbox unit was driven almost 2 meters into the earth.”
Wolf Stotzel, technical expert at the German Wind Energy Association told Power Engineering International the turbine involved was a ‘Tacke TW 600 Windmill with LM19 –Blades.’
Operating company Eurowind Energy GmbH’s Branch Manager, Benjamin Schmitt said the economic damage arising from the accident comes to over half a million euros.
This sum consists of the possible revenues for the wind energy as well as a recovery price in case the wind turbine had been dismantled regularly for further operation. According to German press agency information, the full feed-in tariff would still have been paid for the damaged wind turbine until 31 December 2019.
Eurowind are considering placing an identical wind turbine for installation at the wind farm.
“This is an option,” Schmitt said. “From the point of view of the maintenance company no new authorization is required.”
The windmill was produced in 1999, according to Rasmus GmbH, the turbine’s maintenace firm, who added that the latest maintenance in June had found no safety deficiencies.
Eurowind Energy, which has been operating three more turbines in the park for around two years, and around 300 nationwide stated the wind turbines are in the so-called repowering phase and are to be replaced by modern systems. According to Schmitt, the building permit has already been applied for, but is not yet available. “This will be a while longer,” he told German media.
The incident comes weeks after a similar turbine collapse in the Mecklenburg Pommeria town of Süderholz. BILD daily reported how a wind turbine tower snapped in half and crashed to the ground. An investigation is also underway there and Süderholz mayor Alexander Benkert ordered the other remaining turbines to be thoroughly inspected.
The tower snapped 25 meters up but that no one was injured.
Power Engineering
In addition to the turbine that collapsed in Saxony, there were a further 3 ‘incidents’ across Germany with Der Speigel reporting:
At the beginning of the week, a wind turbine with a height of almost 100 meters collapsed near Hamburg. In addition, the 40-meter-long blade of a wind turbine broke in Zichow in the Uckermark, while in Süderholz (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) a 70-meter-high wind turbine tower fell in mid-December.
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On the other side of the Atlantic, Nova Scotians were tapping into the effects of gravity as yet another 290 tonne Vestas plummeted back to terra firma.
People near snapped wind turbine say winds were high but not unprecedented
CBC News
Gary Mansfield
5 January 2016
Nova Scotia Power and wind turbine maker Vestas trying to determine cause.
People living near a wind turbine in Grand Étang that snapped in half Tuesday night say the winds were high but not unprecedented for that area of Cape Breton.
“We never expected that to happen,” said Rene Tartaglia, who lives near the turbine with his wife, Doreen Aucoin. “The windmill had been there for so long, and we’d had a lot of big wind.”
There was a severe wind warning Tuesday night, with winds reaching 160 km/h, but it’s unclear if that had anything to do with the break.
Inspectors were on scene Thursday taking pictures and assessing the damage.
Nova Scotia Power said no one was at the site at the time and no one was injured.
Tartaglia said the weather was foggy at the time of the collapse. “But I could see the debris was flying down towards the ocean. And after that I realized the windmill was no longer standing.”
Tartaglia said he felt safe after the collapse, but his wife was more concerned.
“If it’s too windy, then maybe it’s not the right place for it,” said Aucoin. “Because it is close to houses and I imagine the people up the hill … they must have been scared because it was right near to their house.”
Laurette Chiasson, a resident who has lived in the area for 59 years, said she’s never had a problem with the windmill, though she was scared after the collapse about pieces hitting the house.
2nd collapse since August
The 50-metre tall wind turbine was made by Denmark-based Vestas.
It was built in 2002 and was one of the first in Nova Scotia with a single 660-kilowatt Vestas turbine. Nova Scotia Power said the model is the only one of its kind in the province.
The collapse was the second one on Cape Breton in the last few months.
In August, an 80-metre wind turbine collapsed in Point Tupper. It was believed to be the first catastrophic failure of its kind in Canada.
Maintenance crews were replacing a “major component” on Aug. 17 when “an incident occurred,” said a spokesperson for Enercon, the Montreal-based company responsible for the turbines in Point Tupper.
CBC News
STOP THESE THINGS 
Could Jackie Rovensky expand on why windmills are so useless.
I agree and I am always looking for more and new information
What a relief it would be if the turbines that surround our neighbourhood would all self destruct!
As long as no one was harmed, this would be cause for celebration!
Reblogged this on UPPER SONACHAN WIND FARM.
Reblogged this on open822.
these things are so dangerous and evil all around..my they be stopped
MAY they be stopped
Until its accepted officially that these things are not nice fluffy gently turning peaceful additions to our visual environments that could NEVER do anything bad, it will be impossible to stop the march.
It is up to us to educate all those we come into contact with. Let them know the physical dangers for passers by, for those travelling minding their own business along roads, for those living with the intolerable noises and vibrations they produce, for the environment, human health and property when they burst into flame throwing blazing debris to the ‘four winds’ with the possibility of such incidents causing uncontrollable bushfires endangering everything that gets in the way.
The damage to the environment and eco-systems including birds, bats and other wildlife as they infest and take over life supporting districts.
Then there is the absolute uselessness of them for the purpose of energy production in any way including reliability. The expense to us of the REC’s and subsidies they hungrily grasp and pocket and what costs there are to us, the end user.
We need to speak out and counter their every lie and there are many of them.
Yes, we have to speak out, we have to write letters and comment when and wherever possible and create our own opportunities. We need to support all those who are doing their best to get this industry stopped whether they are of our own political persuasion or not, whether they are people in the media we would generally listen to or not we need to be their getting in the face of those who support and speak up for this dangerous and most useless industry ever devised.
The weight of the peoples opinion has to rise above that of this industries money hungry owners and their supporters. Our voices CAN be louder and CAN reach into the minds of those who up to now have sat back and taken little or no notice of what is happening in others ‘backyards’, they are coming to understand it is affecting them in their ‘backyards’ and as more accept the truth the voice of reason will become the dominant voice heard.
We know 2 service engineers were killed by a turbine fire and there are many deaths during construction and servicing phases – but that might be regarded as ‘part of the job’ and no legislation alterations of any significance needed.
It will happen that innocent passers-by or visitors will be killed and then legislation will be introduced. The visitor centres will be shut down, public rights of way diverted or closed and large areas become human-deserts.
Not too bothered about the sheep and cattle though – need to keep the ‘minimum’ land use argument going.
The wind industry has clocked up 160 fatalities, so far. Many were innocent civilians, not working in the wind industry.
See this post https://stopthesethings.com/2015/11/10/looking-for-safe-affordable-co2-free-power-then-its-nukes-or-nothing/
Spoke with an engineer recently who commented that people inside the windmill industry accept that wind and maybe solar combined should not go above 10%-15% of total requirements/demand
And to think the psychotic idiots that promote wind have notions of 40% or more. Outrageous
Everyone that supports windmills should be named and shamed on this site
Jay Weatherill
Bill Shorten
Could others provide more names
These people should be named as often as possible
The trade union that invested member funds? I wonder if they consulted the members. Their day will come.
A particularly smug website that promotes wind power and refuses to see anything wrong with it is climatecrocks.com. This is a typical example of their disingenuous posts: https://climatecrocks.com/2016/09/07/unstoppable-the-more-people-see-wind-energy-the-more-they-like-it/ (define “they,” you liars)
Note: I’m not a global warming denier and don’t respect people who use that angle to fight wind power. The public needs to realize that it’s ALL unsustainable, not just one camp defeating another.
http://cutt.us/blightfornaught
A great sight from a wind turbine victims perspective is 1. A stationary wind turbine. 2. A better sight is a wind turbine on fire. 3. A great sight is hills without wind turbines. A really wonderful sight, hopefully to be seen soon, Wind turbine CEO’s senior executives, politicians and public servants in the dock receiving lengthy goal sentences for permitting and carrying out torture under the commonwealth crimes Act, and fraud carried out against the Commonwealth and people of Australia. The United Nations lists sleep deprivation as torture.
yes I agree with you
Wind turbines uncannily resemble the giant tripods in War of the Worlds. Just flip them over and use a little imagination. The legs are blades and the body is a nacelle (sans tower). When a wind turbine falls it gives the impression of a defeated monster.
http://cutt.us/blightfornaught
You’re spot on! Scary!
Fife, Scotland. The council agreed to allow the wind developers to build a wind farm right next to a petro-chemical plant! (Lochgelly/Cowdenbeath). Despite all the objections. The turbines are the really giant ones, anything happens and our town disappears! Did I mention that the petro-chemical plant is also registered as a COMAH site. Beggars belief! Money talks…
https://lochgelly.org.uk/2013/07/fife-fire-brigade-at-little-raith/